RAVE - Farina

It's been a while since we last visited Farina. Our initial love for this modern Italian restaurant was tempered by our repeated (over) indulgence in their rich pastas and focaccia dishes, so we detoxed for a few months.

Last night we welcomed friends from Houston who were reveling in the SF climate and needed to be reminded of how well "we" can cook.

Our role as hosts was executed with flying colors, as everyone enthusiastically chowed down on Farina's fare, including: Prosciutto di San Daniele, burrata e focaccina - Imported San Daniele prosciutto, burrata cheese and lightly fried sage foccacina; Prosciutto di San Daniele, burrata e focaccina - San Daniele prosciutto, burrata and lightly fried sage foccacina; Focaccia di Recco tradizionale - Stracchino cheese melted between two layers of thin dough typical of Recco; Focaccia di Recco con prosciutto cotto - Focaccia di Recco with Rovagnati ham, and not forgetting our vegetables, Cavoletti di Bruxelles saltati in padella - Pan roasted brussels sprouts with extra virgin olive oil.

Accompanied by bottles of Gavi and Nebbiolo we were thankful to our designated driver and our elastic-waisted pants. 

Which reminds me - despite living in the USA for fifteen years, and very recently becoming a US Citizen, I still have trouble referring to trousers (the things you wear on the outside) as pants (the things that in the UK we wear on the inside, and are I guess better described as under-wear, briefs, or knickers). Anyhow, last night I needed elastic everywhere.

RAVE - Region

I try not to post multiple reviews of the same place, but this second visit to Region was a special occasion - Mrs. Page's birthday. She was disappointed enough with her initial birthday meal at Girl and The Fig to suggest (i.e. demand) that we go somewhere we already knew would satisfy her palate. That turned out to be Region.

Despite it eschewing a more descriptive name - like Shanghai, or Shanghai 1930 (both now defunct) - or a classic name - like Lotus Flower - this place adopted the somewhat colder, less expressive name Region. Which Region, exactly, requires further investigation. 

We shared the Crispy Shrimp and Port Chao Zhou Rolls, the Beijing Duck, with homemade pancakes and duck sauce, and the Grass fed Mongolian Beef with Black Rice. We knew the meal would be top notch, and so it was.

Region boasts a gorgeous dining room with birch trees that line the back walls, together with a cool bar serving excellent cocktails.

My "but it's not perfect" companion wasn't happy with the techno music chosen as (hardly) background for the evening, feeling the invisible DJ should break out his collection of Asian-inspired chill out sounds, but for me that was a minor observation.

Nevertheless, the Lady's suggestion was that we make Region a regular choice for take out food, and that way she can have a cocktail while we're waiting, and not have to spend all evening listening to Skrillex.

REVIEW - Aunt Mary's Cafe

No, this isn't a plug for my (non-existent) Aunt Mary. It's a funky eaterie on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. And I wasn't exercising my new US Passport in traveling over the Bay Bridge for lunch. I met a group of friends who had flown into Oakland and were on their way to Calistoga for a weekend of wine-fueled frolics.

Which led us all to Aunt Mary's Cafe. The menu was Southern-centric, with plenty of spicy grits, grains, and griddled dishes. The ambiance was suited to the comfort food on the menu - therefore avoiding any luxury touches or pretensions. The group of old, not-so-old, and downright new friends was great to meet, and well worth the miniscule journey. After all, they had flown four and a half hours while I had driven for barely thirty minutes.

I'm not a fan of particularly spicy food - unlike Woody, who splashes hot sauce on her chili dishes - nor grits - there must be better ways to serve up what is essentially porridge.

A quick perusal of Wikipedia told me that "Modern grits are commonly made of alkali-treated corn known as hominy" and "Grits are similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world such as polenta or the thinner farina". Reading on, I found "The word 'grits' derives from the Old English word 'grytt' meaning coarse meal. This word originally referred to wheat and other porridges now known as 'groats' in parts of the UK, maize being unknown in Europe in the Middle Ages".

Of course, I wish I'd known all of this while eating there, as I would have had another way of boring everyone with my "you've stolen your language from us English / Scottish / Welsh / Irish, and bastardized it en route". A line that is neither wholly true nor particularly relevant. But hey, I'm full of that kind of line.

REVIEW - The Girl and The Fig, Sonoma

This proved to be a mixed bag: my roasted local mushroom salad - with mixed chicories, bacon lardons, torn croutons, roasted garlic, and shallot vinaigrette was excellent, while my steak and frites - a six ounce prime flat iron steak, frites, point reyes blue cheese was a perfect sized and tasting brunch.

But my wife didn't rate her meal at all. Her fig and arugula salad - with toasted pecans, dried figs, pancetta, goat's cheese, fig and port vinaigrette - was a mush of overly sweet cheesy vegetation. And her omelet with short rib, white cheddar and onions was inadequately seasoned and in the end, unappealing.

It wasn't a complete waste of time - we turned the drive to Sonoma into a champagne pick up at Gloria Ferrer - but the rave reviews we've heard of The Girl and The Fig proved unreliable on this visit.

RAVE - Capannina

Outstanding food. It may just make up for the place, which has the feel of your gran's sitting room - if she's into chintzy red velour and lacy curtains.

Despite the middle-aged vibe thrown off by the room, and the bulk of the diners last night, the kitchen staff and team of waiters made it a wonderful evening for our party of four.

My Calamari Ripieni Con Granchio (fresh Monterey Calamari stuffed with Crab and Potato) was fabulous, and my Puntine di Manzo Brasate al Vino Rosso (Braised Short Ribs with mashed potatoes in a red wine sauce) was smooth and tasty - so smooth in fact that the ribs melted in my mouth just like the mashed potato!

My better half similarly enthused about her pasta, and our friends sounded equally pleased with their choices.

Capannina is a traditional Italian restaurant serving wonderful food in a room that's comfortable enough for the retiree in us all.

RAVE - Django Unchained

Say what you will about Quentin Tarantino - cartoon character wielding, pointless violence featuring - he manages to turn out an interesting, funny, and rich story each time he directs a film. 

You've seen the trailers, you know the essential plot - German bounty hunter Christoph Waltz buys the help of freed slave Jamie Foxx to pursue their respective targets, which leads them to rich plantation owner Leonardo Di Caprio and Foxx's wife who is still a slave - now you need to see that story played out in all its Inglorious Basterd-ness.

You have to overcome any concerns you have about the depiction / glorification of racism and recognize it's all just acting appropriate to the time and place - seeing Samuel L Jackson hamming it up should put your mind at rest.

A great film, even if it's no Pulp Fiction.

RANT - Hit and Run

Bradley Cooper managed to slide this low-budget, low-thrills caper into his higher-impact and better-received Silver Linings Playbook, Hangover, and Limitless resume.

Former getaway driver Charlie Bronson jeopardizes his Witness Protection Plan identity in order to help his girlfriend return from their middle-of-nowhere, quiet life to Los Angeles and her new job. His former partners-in-crime Bradley Cooper and some unknown manage to intersect with the Charlie and his girlfriend en route to LA, with predictable results.

This was billed as a "comedy" but managed to leave my sides decidedly un-split, and the rest of me un-moved by what was a hit and run movie with few hits and not much of a run.

Low budget Tom Arnold, Beau Bridges and a few other inconsequentials fill out a cast that turned this into a pedestrian movie that had little to recommend it.

REVIEW - The Master

Joacquin Phoenix plays a seaman at the end of WWII. He's an alcoholic, mixing up killer cocktails from industrial fuels and medicines, as well as having a number of emotional and behavioral problems. JP is somewhat (justifiably?) typecast in these roles.

After finding himself out of the navy after the war's over, he gets and loses a series of jobs, only to stow away on a boat that's carrying Philip Seymour Hoffman's daughter and husband-to-be's wedding party. 

Hoffman is The Master - the leader of a cult that uses hypnosis and other techniques to explore and control the minds of its devotees.

What then transpires is basically well-acted nothingness. Two hours of engaging, but eventually pointless tracing of the cult's travels and JP's naive and slavish following.

I say "pointless" because nothing is resolved, no life-changing is experienced, nothing and no-one is debunked.

RANT - Texas Chainsaw 3D

A totally predictable, three-dimensioned pile of derivative poo that I should be shot for allowing myself to see. The grammar there is probably just as bad as the film it's attempting to describe, but at least it's accurate.

I was in a strange city (Atlanta), and with no preparation or planning I got a taxi from my hotel to the nearest movie complex and stood in line to see what was playing. I'd seen most of the films already, except for "Texas 3D". I hadn't heard of a film called "Texas", 2D or 3D. It was rated R, so at least I knew it couldn't be a kid's film, so I paid my $11.50, bought my Diet Coke and sauntered off to sit, virtually alone in Screening Room 11. I was just congratulating myself on arriving, unplanned, precisely when the movie was starting, when the horrible news played out - Texas Chainsaw.

It was much warmer there in the theater than it was outside, so I stayed and watched the unlikely story of a surviving member of the original murderous family who attacks a party of stupid twenty somethings (i.e. a group of dumb asses who never turn the lights on when they venture into a dark basement, and never think that it's unwise to explore an empty house alone).

It's a testament to the predictability and greed of Hollywood that there have been FIVE remakes of the 1974 "classic", from Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Next Generation, through Massacre 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning, and one remake that was so lazy and unimaginative that it used the same name as the original.

Needless to say, avoid this one like there's someone threatening you with, um, a Chainsaw.

REVIEW - Fish and Farm

Decent food but a not too pleasant ambiance that turned what could have been an enjoyable experience into something much less.

First of all, it's part of the Hotel Mark Twain, which does little for its reputation as a happening restaurant. To be fair, you don't have to go through the hotel to get to Fish and Farm, but you definitely get the feeling that at the wrong time of day you could be shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of expense account eaters. 

And shoulder to shoulder is definitely what you'll be, because there's not much space between the tables. It was also too warm (it was hot!) in there. The place is also echo-y and therefore noisy. And it smelled of the Fish. Someone - or rather, a lot of the clientele - had clearly chosen fishy mealz prior to our arrival, as that was the pervading aroma when we entered.

We didn't help, as we started by sharing the Calamari (not bad at all, and not the usual breaded and fried variety, but crisp and grilled, with olives, garlic, shallots, arugula and frisee), and then Pavey had the Halibut ("over done, not properly seasoned, and one of my least enjoyed halibuts for a long time"), while I had the Ribeye (a great steak, one that madame kept taking slices of as a substitute for her less than stellar halibut).

I'm glad we went there, but not so glad that I'll be pressing to go back soon.

RAVE - Zero Dark Thirty

I feel somewhat guilty finding fault with the time this film took to get going, and the pace it sustained once it had. Both were a product of the level of detail the director focused on - normally something I really look for in a good movie, but which proved just a bit much here, especially when we knew where this was all going.

The final half hour, when the marines flew their cloaked choppers into Pakistan, touched down in Bin Laden's compound and gradually - in pitch darkness - carefully picked the place apart looking for their target was, to repeat an over-used and inadequate phrase, awesome.

It was easy to confuse and compare Zero Dark Thirty with the TV series Homeland, which covered very similar territory - a female CIA operative driven by her conviction and determination to follow an investigative trail over years. 

Both had their faults, but at least the film was over in three hours.

RAVE - The Impossible

This film gets a RAVE review, not because I particularly liked it, but because I can't bring myself to knock a creditable effort like this, and one that is so interminably serious.

Of course, it's a serious subject: the Christmas 2004 tsunami that struck south-east Asia, killing 200,000 people. The film deals with The Impossible story - a true one - of a family of five who were vacationing by the beach at a resort in Thailand when the tsunami hit.

Revealing why it was "impossible" would mean giving away the end, but in my view you don't need to see it all the way through to realize this film is constructed like a chick flick, with all the heart-rending emotion wound up to 11.

And I wonder what the Spanish family who suffered the tragedy around which the film is based, and the various Spanish companies that funded the movie, think about their roles being played by English actors Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts.

Yes, it was moving. Yes, it was compelling. And yes! the effects were stupendous. But.

RANT - NYE at Abbott's Cellar

We've eaten here a couple times before, and really enjoyed it. But last night's New Year's Eve experience was unspectacular, despite the great company.

Our reservation was at 10pm. We walked past at 9pm, en route to The Phoenix Irish Pub for some whistle-wetting, and Abbott's Cellar looked quiet. We hoped it might liven up by the time the late shift arrived, so we ignored that warning sign for the time being.

However, when we got back for our 10pm slot, the place felt far from sold out and to cap it all we were ushered to a table at the far end of the restaurant, to a place that was even quieter and devoid of atmosphere. So much for a lively, party to bring in the New Year.

The menu was a set five courses with some selectablity, and an optional beer or wine pairing.

There were six of us, so we had plenty of scope for tasting everything that was available. But there just didn't feel there was a wide enough variety, and what we did choose was mostly un-inspiring - certainly falling short of our previous experiences here.

I won't bother listing every dish we had, but very few of them elicited any gasps of excitement from our group. 

The Bison Tartare, or The Crepinette of Quail, or Ricotta Gnocchi all sounded interesting, but were destined to disappoint. The Scallop, Prawn, Oyster and Seaweed Salad tasted like it had been dragged through a puddle on a cold, dark dock somewhere dull.

There was some respite on the flavor front with the Rib-eye and the Lamb Chops, but that was all.

The three guys fared just as poorly with our Beer pairings, which ranged from the too-wheaty, through the too-malty, to the one that we just couldn't drink, for its flavor was reminiscent of melted iron bar.

The desserts were all very good, but came too late to label the meal a success.

At least our limos were cranked up and waiting for us outside at 1am, so all was not lost.

I'll just have to do better for Holly and Tom, Beverly and Lawrence, and my hot date next time.